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@mre

Matthias Endler

mre
Düsseldorf, Germany

Rebuilding Link Checking for the Modern Web

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Broken Links, Broken Trust

As a website or documentation maintainer, you know that broken links ruin user experience and damage trust.

  • Outdated links are frustrating, and can cause your readers to bounce.
  • Broken links prevent access critical information about your product or service.
  • This can ultimately lead to a loss of potential customers and profits.

Other Link Checkers Just Don't Work

You can avoid this problem by regularly checking and updating your links, but traditionally, tools used to detect broken links have a few common flaws:

They...

  • are slow.
  • produce a high number of false-positives.
  • only support a single file format (HTML or Markdown, not both).
  • are hard to install because they aren't distributed as a single binary.

Because of these problems, people give up on checking their links altogether, leading to more broken links.

Rebuilding Link Checking for the Modern Web: Starting From First Principles

In order to address this issue, I began developing a faster and more reliable link checker, written in Rust, that utilizes fewer resources. This tool, named lychee, is more feature-complete than other available options.

Lychee checks thousands, if not millions, of links every week. It's used by many big projects, such as Amazon's OpenSearch, as well as by companies like Microsoft and Google.

I Can't Do It Without You

Despite its popularity and effectiveness, however, lychee is currently facing a severe lack of funding which makes it difficult to keep the project sustainable. This lack of funding poses a big threat to the ecosystem, as it means less maintenance and fewer bug fixes.

I would greatly appreciate your support in making the development of lychee sustainable. Without sponsorship, I find myself having to take on additional consulting work, which limits the time I am able to dedicate to open source projects. My goal is to make working on lychee and related projects like lychee-action a viable long-term career path.

Please pick a support tier to make this vision a reality. Thanks for your support ❤️

Not convinced?

If you want to learn more about what lychee can do, why not check out the lychee website? Also, feel free to reach out or schedule a meeting to discuss how we can collaborate.

@mre

With your support, a goal of $500/month for lychee development would help me to dedicate a full work day to the project each week, bringing us closer to a version 1.0 release. This funding would also allow me to focus on implementing bigger features such as recursion support or rate limiting, making lychee even more powerful and reliable for everyone. Thank you for your support in making this vision a reality.

Current sponsors 7

@repi
@evilmartians
@LoovtO
@Jervelund
@tkoeppen
@theredfish
@ramnes
Past sponsors 19
@drmason13
@masiarek
@FreddyWordingham
@enriquephl
@ondrejsika
@otniel
@blwsh
@reillysiemens
@hankhan425
@gitpod-forks
@iamnbutler
@orhun
@nathany
@chazelton331
Private Sponsor
@kerkmann
Private Sponsor
@SSJHolmes

Featured work

  1. lycheeverse/lychee

    ⚡ Fast, async, stream-based link checker written in Rust. Finds broken URLs and mail addresses inside Markdown, HTML, reStructuredText, websites and more!

    Rust 2,214
  2. lycheeverse/lychee-action

    Github action to check for broken links in Markdown, HTML, and text files using lychee, a fast link checker written in Rust.

    Shell 325
  3. analysis-tools-dev/static-analysis

    ⚙️ A curated list of static analysis (SAST) tools and linters for all programming languages, config files, build tools, and more. The focus is on tools which improve code quality.

  4. mre/idiomatic-rust

    🦀 A peer-reviewed collection of articles/talks/repos which teach concise, idiomatic Rust.

    Rust 6,632
  5. tinysearch/tinysearch

    🔍 Tiny, full-text search engine for static websites built with Rust and Wasm

    Rust 2,732
  6. hello-rust/show

    🍿 Show notes, code, and future topic ideas for "Hello Rust!", a YouTube channel about the Rust programming language.

    Rust 307

Learn more about sponsoring developers and organizations.

Report abuse

9% towards $500 per month goal

@tkoeppen @repi
@evilmartians @theredfish @LoovtO @Jervelund @ramnes

tkoeppen and 6 others sponsor this goal

Select a tier

$ a month

You'll receive any rewards listed in the $10 monthly tier. Additionally, a Public Sponsor achievement will be added to your profile.

$5 a month

Select

⭐️ Supporter

You like to fund my work so that I keep doing what I'm doing.

Perks

  • 🙏 High five to you!
  • 🏅 A sponsor badge on your profile.

$10 a month

Select

⭐⭐ User

You're a great individual who used lychee and that wants me to maintain and extend it.
Thank you, good person on the internet.

Perks

  • 🙏 High five to you!
  • 🏅 A sponsor badge on your profile.
  • 🐦 A shout-out on social media (reach for that out if you like)

$20 a month

Select

⭐⭐⭐ VIP User

You rely on my tools for your production needs and want to ensure they remain stable.
To meet this goal, I will be available to address any issues that arise,
review any submitted code changes, and take overall responsibility for managing
the project's development.

Perks

  • 🙏 High five to you!
  • 🏅 A sponsor badge on your profile.
  • 🐦 A shout-out on social media (reach for that out if you like)
  • 🐛 Prioritized bug reports
  • 🗺 Ability to influence the project roadmap with prioritized feature requests.

$250 a month

Select

🏭 Company Tier

Your company would like to give back to open source. By subscribing to this tier you support the continued development of my tools. Thanks so much!

Perks

  • 🐦 A personal thank you message on social media mentioning your product.
  • 🖼 Your our company logo on the lychee repo.
  • 🤗 You show the world that you care about open-source (which is great for recruiting BTW).

$500 a month

Select

🏢 Company Premium Tier

Your company wants to stay ahead of the curve and ensure the quality of your links. By subscribing to this tier, you support the continued development of lychee and also get access to advanced features and support.

Perks

  • 🐦 A personal thank you message on social media mentioning your product.
  • 🖼 Your company logo on the lychee repo.
  • 🤗 Show the world that your company cares about open-source and the performance of your links.
  • 📱 Priority support via email or company chat app for help and support around link checking.
  • 🔧 Bug fixes and updates prioritized for Pro Tier subscribers.

$1,000 a month

Select

🌇 Company VIP Tier

Your company wants to give back to open source and take the performance of your links to the next level. By subscribing to this tier, you not only support the continued development of lychee, but also get access to personal help and support from the developer.

Perks

  • 🐦 A personal thank you message on social media mentioning your product.
  • 🖼 Your company logo on the lychee repo.
  • 🤗 Show the world that your company cares about open-source and the performance of your links.
  • 📱 Direct access to the developer via company chat app for help and support around link checking.
  • 🚀 Feature requests prioritized
  • 💼 Great for recruiting, as it demonstrates your company's commitment to open-source